Market Systems Development Procurement Papers

Development projects and activities typically involve a collaboration between donors (who pay) and implementers (who do). These parties’ interests overlap but are not identical.

Procurement and contracting are used to reconcile different interests in a formal and transparent manner, but it can become an adversarial process. Antagonism, if it arises, discourages constructive relationships of trust. This, in turn, hinders the flexible, adaptive management needed if programs that use the Market Systems Development (MSD) approach are to be effective in reducing poverty.

The MSD Procurement Series grew out of informal conversations in a series of clinics between donors and implementers seeking to resolve this essential dilemma. The series is a set of four papers that came out of the MSD Procurement Clinics:

• MSD Procurement Papers - an overview
• #1 Decisive structures: procurement format options for MSD programs and their different implications
• #2 Deepening the relationship: a stage-by-stage guide to strengthening partnerships between donors and implementers in MSD programs
• #3 Getting off the ground: practical lessons for the launch phase of MSD programs
• #4 Fit for Business: modifying internal procurement processes to suit adaptive MSD programs

Watch the BEAM webinar - How to do MSD procurement: practical insights from donors and implementers - where clinic participants discussed their findings.